Tuesday, 16 August 2022

Ministers statements: mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility

Ms PULFORD (Western Victoria—Minister for Employment, Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Resources) (11:42): It is my absolute delight to update the house on the development of Victoria’s world-leading mRNA ecosystem. In May last year the Andrews Labor government announced our intention to establish end-to-end capability in this new and exciting technology, and we have done just that. However, we are very much still getting started.

Yesterday it was a thrill to join Prime Minister Albanese, the Premier, the federal minister for health, the federal Minister for Industry and Science, the vice-chancellor at Monash University and Michael Azrak, the GM for Moderna Australia and New Zealand, to announce that Monash University will be home to Moderna in this region. Victoria will have one of the few manufacturing and fill-and-finish capabilities in the world and the only one in the Southern Hemisphere. Surrounded by world-leading research and application, Monash University is the perfect location. And Monash, with this announcement, becomes the only university in the world to have commercial-scale mRNA manufacturing occurring on site. The millions of doses that will be produced will save lives. They will protect the community from this pandemic, future pandemics and a host of other conditions as the science leaps into the next exciting stage with mRNA.

Moderna coming to Victoria presents an extraordinary opportunity and investment for our researchers. The research partnership that we are entering into with Moderna will enable our scientists to make the next great discoveries. There are currently clinical trials underway in cystic fibrosis, cancer treatments and respiratory diseases, and there are emerging areas being explored, including heart disease and AIDS. The list is very long. This is a game changer in terms of our biotech capability and the strength of our sector, which is by any measure absolutely world class. I would like to thank in particular my team at mRNA Victoria, including CEO Michael Kapel.